An account of my pursuit of trying to deepen and intensify my Dharma practice, through TBC, Zen (Ch'an, Soen), Tibetan and Theravada traditions, Refuge Recovery, with book reviews, cultural notes, photography, and anything Buddhisty I can get my hands on.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

two books connect in practitioners mind

I'm trying to read two books as quickly as I can so I can review them. But they are both so awesome, I find myself slowing down to fully grasp the profundity.

One is Living As A River. As I meditated this morning, I thought about the dust mites eating my discarded skin, making my studio apartment less dusty in fact.

The second book is Face Martin's Endless Path. This book is the best book I've ever read about the Jataka Tales.

He was talking about the tale where a past Buddha to be, gave himself to a hungry tiger, as meat. In seeing yourself as meat, you radically deconstuct the pompus self, similar to the deconstruction of the self in the six element practice, like in Living As A River.

In the second tale in Martin's wonderful book, I came across a stunning tale that was much more worldly. I won't tell it to you, but must just refer you to this excellent book.